Frankly Francis
I John
The new Pope is fascinating without having done a single thing. First, he is an embodiment that the Roman Catholic church is now a Southern branch of Christianity--by which, I do not mean Southern like my home in Georgia, but southern in being south of the equator. There are more Catholics in Central and South America than in the Northern Hemisphere combined. Second, in taking the name Francis, he makes a statement about the Church's relationship to poverty. Francis was a reformer of sorts, denouncing the corruption and materialism of the Church in the 14th Century--and very nearly got himself excommunicated as a heretic along with all of his brethren in his nascent monastic order. He argued that as Christ had nothing, so, too, should his clergy have nothing. The new Pope rode public transport, lived in a small city apartment, and walked the streets in Buenos Aires with the people. It will be interesting to see how that carries over into his papacy.
But as a New York Times op-ed opined on Friday, there is a difference for Francis I between social justice and social issues. He may argue vehemently for economic justice, but he will argue just as strongly for the Church's orthodox statements on homosexuality, women's issues, Roe v. Wade, for he is a staunch conservative in these matters.
So, as a Protestant clergy, what do I care?
The Pope is the most public Christian out there. Like the Dalai Lama of Tibetan Buddhism, he is a figure the entire world immediately recognizes. It is assumed that in hearing him, one hears what Christianity believes without bothering to delve into the deep chasms and nuances of Christianity's multiplicity of voices, even within the Catholic hegemony. So, as the new Pope begins to speak on the world, the Church, God's delineations of human life, and the response of humanity to God, he will speak for all of us under the umbrella of Christ whether or not we agree with him on matters theological or social. For some folks, the fact that I preach Christ, too, will mean I must be in concert with the Pope.
So it matters.
My prayer would be that the compassion of Francis I will trump all else. As the op-ed wrote of him, he reached out to lost members of the flock with grace with alacrity. I hope that will continue. I hope it will also be a spur to all of us within the fold of Christ to make compassion our aim and our end. We may argue vehemently over the image of God and Christ and how inclusive grace really is, but I would hope we would all come to see the compassion trumps all else. "Love one another," the Apostle John counseled.
And about that apostle...
John's gospel and his small set of epistles are extraordinary documents on the issue of compassion being the essence of Christianity. For John, Christ's advent was the embodiment of God's love ("For God so loved the world..."). Christ was God's love (the Word) revealed, lived, and exalted (Easter). To be in Christ's community, then, means living that love, too ("Feed my sheep..."). In so doing, we reveal God to the world ("No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, then God dwells in us").
So, we have a new Pope who took the name of God's minstrel, a man consumed by the love of God and God's love for the world.
May this be a call to all of us to live compassionately, to seek an end to suffering in all of its forms, and to walk with anyone we meet, anywhere we meet them.
The new Pope is fascinating without having done a single thing. First, he is an embodiment that the Roman Catholic church is now a Southern branch of Christianity--by which, I do not mean Southern like my home in Georgia, but southern in being south of the equator. There are more Catholics in Central and South America than in the Northern Hemisphere combined. Second, in taking the name Francis, he makes a statement about the Church's relationship to poverty. Francis was a reformer of sorts, denouncing the corruption and materialism of the Church in the 14th Century--and very nearly got himself excommunicated as a heretic along with all of his brethren in his nascent monastic order. He argued that as Christ had nothing, so, too, should his clergy have nothing. The new Pope rode public transport, lived in a small city apartment, and walked the streets in Buenos Aires with the people. It will be interesting to see how that carries over into his papacy.
But as a New York Times op-ed opined on Friday, there is a difference for Francis I between social justice and social issues. He may argue vehemently for economic justice, but he will argue just as strongly for the Church's orthodox statements on homosexuality, women's issues, Roe v. Wade, for he is a staunch conservative in these matters.
So, as a Protestant clergy, what do I care?
The Pope is the most public Christian out there. Like the Dalai Lama of Tibetan Buddhism, he is a figure the entire world immediately recognizes. It is assumed that in hearing him, one hears what Christianity believes without bothering to delve into the deep chasms and nuances of Christianity's multiplicity of voices, even within the Catholic hegemony. So, as the new Pope begins to speak on the world, the Church, God's delineations of human life, and the response of humanity to God, he will speak for all of us under the umbrella of Christ whether or not we agree with him on matters theological or social. For some folks, the fact that I preach Christ, too, will mean I must be in concert with the Pope.
So it matters.
My prayer would be that the compassion of Francis I will trump all else. As the op-ed wrote of him, he reached out to lost members of the flock with grace with alacrity. I hope that will continue. I hope it will also be a spur to all of us within the fold of Christ to make compassion our aim and our end. We may argue vehemently over the image of God and Christ and how inclusive grace really is, but I would hope we would all come to see the compassion trumps all else. "Love one another," the Apostle John counseled.
And about that apostle...
John's gospel and his small set of epistles are extraordinary documents on the issue of compassion being the essence of Christianity. For John, Christ's advent was the embodiment of God's love ("For God so loved the world..."). Christ was God's love (the Word) revealed, lived, and exalted (Easter). To be in Christ's community, then, means living that love, too ("Feed my sheep..."). In so doing, we reveal God to the world ("No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, then God dwells in us").
So, we have a new Pope who took the name of God's minstrel, a man consumed by the love of God and God's love for the world.
May this be a call to all of us to live compassionately, to seek an end to suffering in all of its forms, and to walk with anyone we meet, anywhere we meet them.
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